High data rate signal transmission is a concern in many systems. Current server systems, for example, often use a set of user-selected components that need to communicate with each other at high data rates. In a server system using blades, for example, the blades, such as server blades and storage blades, are mounted in a common enclosure and share system components such as cooling fans, power supplies, and enclosure management. For the blades to work together and provide the desired data storage, processing, and communications, the server system needs to provide high data rate communication channels for communications between blades.
Data channels using electrical signaling generally require high frequency electrical signals to provide high data transmission rates, and the high frequency oscillations can present impedance and noise problems for electrical signals transmitted over conductors such as copper wires. Data channels using optical signaling can avoid many of these problems, but guided optical signaling may require complex waveguides and/or dealing with loose optical cables or ribbons. The optical cables or ribbons may introduce space and reliability issues in systems such as servers. Free-space optical signaling avoids impedance and noise problems associated with electrical signals and avoids the need for waveguides or optical cables. However, use of a free-space optical data channel in a system such as a server generally requires the ability to precisely align an optical transmitter and an optical detector and the ability to maintain the alignment in an environment that may experience mechanical and thermal variations. The challenges of establishing and maintaining alignment for free-space optical data channels can multiply when multiple data optical channels are needed. Accordingly, systems and methods for economically and efficiently establishing and maintaining multiple free-space optical channels are desired.